Fishing Bay Harbour Deltaville VA USA

We anchored off Deltaville on 16 May and it was raining. Since then it has rained more than it has been dry and some of that rain has been absolutely torrential, so much so that our dinghy, left in the water overnight behind BV, ended up with 15 cm of water in it. As you can see from the photograph above, we have put up our cockpit tent [Ed: all but the back panel because it is very humid] which hasn’t been used in anger for several years but is now one of the most useful bits of kit on BV. To say that the contrast from this time last week is extreme, is a major understatement!

On Friday night we invited our friends Lydia and Bill (OCC, Dragon Run) onto BV for drinks before they went off to a dinner at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club but the weather was so foul with warnings of flash floods and torrential rain, that we called it off. Lydia has assured us that this is most unusual for weather for the Chesapeake at this time of year.

Fishing Bay Harbour Marina

We are anchored off the Fishing Bay Harbour Marina and, because all of the foreshore around here is private, we are using the marina as our way ashore. For a small fee we can leave the dinghy there, borrow bikes to cycle to the shops, or a pickup truck for big stuff, and use their laundry facilities [Ed: not that I was inclined to do the latter until the rain stopped].

Now Fishing Bay Harbour, Deltaville is not where you would normally expect a visiting yacht to head for first when getting into Chesapeake Bay; Norfolk, Newport or Hampton would be much more the norm. However, we are using Deltaville as a base location because Lydia and Bill have been recommended a couple of boatyards here and if you get hauled out they actually allow you to do the work on your boat yourself rather than having to employ the yard’s labourers. One of our first tasks was to work up a timeline for the next 5 weeks which will include, preparations and bookings for a haul out; visiting our good friends Phil and Lesley who live just west of Washington DC; a historic cruise in company in Chesapeake with other members of the Ocean Cruising Club (organised by Lydia and Bill who live in the local area); followed by getting BV lifted out and put on the hard for a week for annual maintenance. We are also going to take the opportunity to get BV surveyed whilst she is out of the water to keep our insurance company happy (routine business because she hasn’t been surveyed since we bought her 11 years ago).

Deltaville is not a big place but, as the sailing centre for Richmond, it has a huge West Marine chandlery; a fab local hardware store that will supply anything for boats and aims to undercut the big chain; a canvaswork and covers maker; and a sail loft. With several boatyards and marinas in the immediate vicinity and the support services to go with them, we should be able to get anything that we need organised. We’ve produced a list of servicing kits, metric bolts, paint and other boaty gubbins that we will need when we get hauled out in the middle of June. Sam, at the hardware store, has taken the lead role in getting us the parts we need and has appreciated the generous lead time that we have given him to do that. We’ve also managed to get the right USA marine plugs to make up a lead so that we will be able plug BV into the shorepower when we are alongside. Next purchase we’ve now realised will be the right connectors so that we can attach our hosepipe to the US taps!

A typical lapboard style of house in Deltaville, this one dating from 1840

Despite the rain we have also been exploring ashore, not least of which to get to the grocery store. It’s a huge contrast from the Caribbean but it really is a lovely area. We have cycled past cornfields and dense woodland on our way to the shops and all the while passing the pretty lapboard style of housing which is traditional in this area.

Everyone is also incredibly friendly and helpful. Every time we have cycled to the grocery store, we’ve ended up getting a lift back to the marina with the bikes in the back of a pick-up truck and these lifts have been from complete strangers just wanting to help us out.

The Fishing Bay Yacht Club close to where BV is anchored

On Thursday we briefly went over to the Fishing Bay Yacht Club so that we knew from where to pick up Lydia and Bill for drinks on board BV on Friday [Ed: before the rain killed that social!]. There were a couple of members there, one of whom said, “oh just take a look around if you want” and proceeded to unlock and let us in, “Just close up when you go, I’ve gotta leave.” It’s a lovely clubhouse, or more accurately 2 clubhouses, with waterfronts on both sides of the Stove Point isthmus, one for yachts and one for a hugely active dinghy fleet.

The yacht waterfront and moorings on Jackson Creek (N side of the isthmus)

The setting is delightful and the creeks around are all dotted with really rather nice-looking houses too….

…. and it was even better when the rain finally stopped and the sun came out on Sunday. Sunday, however, for us was a day of work.

As a precursor to working on the forward holding tank pump [Ed: it was always going to be a delightful task, so it’s not surprising that we had put that one off for as long as possible!] we needed to empty and try to clean out the tank and the pump, so we took the opportunity to go alongside at Fishing Bay Marina’s fuel dock in the morning. Here we flushed and pumped out both holding tanks. It was quite satisfying that back in July 2013 we had had the foresight to buy the right adaptor to link our holding tanks to the US pump out machine nozzle. With those tanks empty we proceeded to fill up the fuel tank and discovered that we’d used less fuel than we had expected; useful for calculating our fuel burn at low revs. With some extra water taken on board as well we felt that we really ought to clear from the dock to make space for the cabin cruiser that had been circling and harrumphing. We had expected him to move onto the dock with us as there was just space for that but, amusingly, the marina staff wouldn’t allow that. “You don’t want him anywhere near your boat when he’s at that wheel”, more than hinted that perhaps they didn’t rate his boat handling skills.

The forward holding tank pump (left) and the service kit bits than needed to go into it

Back at anchor we could put off the dirty deed no longer; it was time to pull apart the forward holding tank pump. Not a difficult task, just not one you really want to do. However, it was definitely overdue a service because the joker valve was very distorted. With it all back together and the whole area sanitized Nicky then spent an hour re-stowing the spares that we keep on top of the tank and rebuilding our bunk. We’d earned a beer after all of that!

In and around the planning for the lift-out we’ve also drawn up a huge list of maintenance and cleaning jobs that we have been putting off, probably for far too long, whilst we’ve been enjoying the Caribbean. There is a lot more than just the holding tank pump to service and so our plan was to use the next week and a half to tackle that backlog. However, plans are here to be broken and Lydia and Bill have just come up with a much more fun idea. “Now that the rain looks like it has stopped, lets sail over to Onancock, it’s such a dear little place”, and so that is exactly what we are doing. Sewing, varnishing and other maintenance tasks have, for a few days, been put on hold.

Fishing Bay Harbour, Deltaville, VA, USA